On days such as these, Roger Federer would normally dispense with his racket
bag in the locker room, meet the press within 15 minutes and be out of the
stadium tout de suite. Yesterday, he reacted very differently, taking
more than two hours to settle, contemplate his words and get the mood right.
“It was like a wave coming over me and I couldn’t do anything about it,” he
said.

The wave went by the name of Andy Murray and this was not how Federer had
planned his tournament return would turn out. Perhaps he did not envisage
making the